“It was so clear and so simple to make decisions and move forward”, that’s what Karilen Mays, Certified Master Coach in Holacracy and Partner at HolacracyOne, the company behind Holacracy® said when...

Le Directeur Général des Services du SIAV, François-Laurent Facquez, et Hakim Haïkel, Directeur Général Adjoint, they talked to us about their experience with the Holacracy system and the change of power that...

SIAV, “Syndicat Intercommunal d’Assainissement de Valenciennes” (Valenciennes Intercommunal Sanitation Syndicate), switched to Holacracy in October 2015 following the decision taken by the President Véronique Dupiré,...

Nicolas Ochem, Manager of Villages DECATHLON (subsidiary of DECATHLON), was interested in Holacracy because his CEO, Michel Aballea, decided to launch a liberation movement in the company (referring to Isaac Getz’s book).

Interview of Bruno Joachin, CEO of PFMR, a funeral parlor located in the north of Paris, composed of five agencies and about fifteen employees. In this videos, Bruno Joachin explains its main motivation to move towards Holacracy, a new social...

Rediffusion of the Liip Talk Webinar about Holacracy with Bernard Marie Chiquet. How to have an explicit and simple organization structure without any power games, politics? An organization that can adapt has fast has change? An organization...

Do you experience these endemic challenges in your organization ?

Do these endemic challenges persist and amplify in your organization? It seems that all the managerial approaches developed in the past decades (coaching, team building, collective intelligence, learning organizations, Lean management, Agile Methods…) don’t meet the expectations we want.

It’s because these challenges are the natural consequences of the very structure of your organization.

The structure of organizations has not significantly evolved since the beginning of the industrial era despite the two inflection points: the Lean Management (by Toyota in the 70’s) and the Agile Methods which comes from the IT industry. In the beginning of the 20th century, organizations were shaping their environment. It’s no longer the case today: organizations evolve much slower than their environment.

“A world more and more mobile, changing, precarious and instable is taking shape. Never has work of men evolved as much as it will be altered in the next fifty years.”

Jacques Attali

How to keep the advantages of the classical hierarchic model which are useful while gaining new abilities to provide the organization with speed, agility and adaptation ?

After ten years of research, Bernard Marie Chiquet, multi-entrepreneur and manager of large corporations (Executive Director in CapGemini, Senior Partner in Ernst & Young, Founder and CEO of Eurexpert) became interested in Holacracy, “a new system that allows handling challenges encountered in today’s organizations on a sustainable basis”. He is a Certified Master Coach (1 of 3 in the world), the highest degree of certification in Holacracy, and iGi Partners is the number one LHP (Licensed Holacracy® Provider) in the world.

“I needed both to restructure the whole organization in order for it to adapt to the evolution of its environment as well as to empower members of the managing team to get back to performing: Holacracy brings to the whole company the structure and the rules of the game required to make it agile, fast and fluid. But in addition to that, I observed that it reinforced the bond between individuals which created a real “professional” team in which each person knows their role, and passes between players get easier and clearer.”

Thierry Girard, President of Antonutti Delmas

Frequently Asked Questions :

How long has this system existed ?

How long has this system existed ?

Holacracy is young. It has existed for 7 years. This youth allows it to differentiate from other methods that have been developed over the past 30 years. It opens the path to something radically new. It addresses, in depth, challenges that constantly increase in organizations.

How was Holacracy born ?

How was Holacracy born ?

Initially, Holacracy was tested in the field between 2001 and 2006 by a technology company with several awards. The general management of the company experimented continuously with new organizational and cooperation methods, integrating new ideas and techniques from vanguard movers and pioneering thinkers.

The resulting system was presented to the public in 2006 through interviews and writings including an article in the Wall Street Journal. Since then, Holacracy has continued to evolve and to expand. It is now an international movement, supported by numerous agents of change who are conscious of the limits of the current system.

Do you have examples of companies that work with this system ?

Do you have examples of companies that work with this system ?

Antonutti Delmas (France) - 250 persons
Antonutti Delmas is a transport company coached in Holacracy by iGi Partners since July 2012. The deployment included the entire organization.
The president, who just took over the company, wanted to “empower the members of the management team to find the path of performance again” and he needed to “restructure the whole organization for it to adapt to the evolution of its environment”. According to him, “Holacracy brings to the whole company the structure and the rules of the game required to make it agile, fast and fluid”. In addition, he “…observed that it created a greater bond between individuals who now form a real “professional” team in which each person knows their role and passes between players get easier and clearer.”

Castorama (France) - 13,000 employees
A pilot was conducted for 3 months at Castorama.
The Marketing Director, C. Mistou, wanted greater performance: “When I hire someone, I only use 30% of his potential since the rest is lost in meetings, political games and everything else.” “In the beginning, all were skeptical but once we made everything work, the organization became extremely agile and responsive. The collaborators understood that there was no problem with people but only holes in the racket.” C. Mistou.

David Allen Company (US) - 60 people
This American company, which offers a new stress-free approach to productivity, was coached in Holacracy for a complete implementation. It has now been 2 years that it works with Holacracy. We met the founder, ex-manager of the company, in Paris: “As the founder, the biggest change I experienced was that all the tensions that I was carrying as a CEO are now distributed throughout the entire organization”, as David Allen, author of the bestseller “Getting Things Done”, told us before he added that “thanks to Holacracy, our meetings are more efficient and the decision making much faster”. According to an internal survey, 98% of the employees are satisfied with the implementation of Holacracy. Not surprised with this result, David Allen concluded the interview: “Holacracy offers a healthy way to create motivation”.

Imc2 (US) - 350 people
Doug Levy, auteur de Winning in the Relationship Era, est conscient des limites du système actuel et s’engage donc avec l’Holacracy, il y a deux ans. Fondateur et CEO de imc2, agence de marketing de 300 personnes, il nous a partagé le pourquoi de son choix : “Doug Levy, author of “Winning in the Relationship Era”, is conscious of the limits of the current system and therefore got involved with Holacracy 2 years ago. Founder and CEO of Imc2, a marketing agency of 300 people, he shared with us the reason for his choice: “I always wanted to work this way but I did not have the structure to do so”. Happy with his choice, he reveals that with Holacracy, “people are happy and the organization is vivid, fast and agile”.
An internal survey was also conducted: 60% of the employees love Holacracy, 40% are neutral and the percentage of satisfaction increases over time.

Distric of Columbia Technology Office (US)
A development team works with Holacracy in this defense department since the end of 2010.

Can Holacracy be applied in all sectors of activities ?

Can Holacracy be applied in all sectors of activities ?

Yes. Curiously, the same difficulties are found in all types of organizations, to different degrees. We intervened in Territorial Collectivities, Regional Preservation Parks, Business Companies, Non-Profit organizations, administrative companies (government)…

What are the main obstacles that may be encountered during the implementation ?

What are the main obstacles that may be encountered during the implementation ?

The main obstacle: habits; change of habits. The practice of Holacracy deals with our current way of functioning, it is therefore necessary to change our habits. Holacracy pushes me to change my reflexes and habits that used to serve me well. That’s where the difficulty lies. It would be easier if those reflexes and habits did not serve me well! That’s why we offer 6 months of coaching by a neutral external facilitator. It allows for reframing people who try to dominate from below and, generally, they give up after 3 meetings.

The shift is more complicated at the operational level: the manager no longer has the authority as a leader. If a specific person energizes a specific role, then the manager has no authority over this person and can no longer dictate to him what he needs to do. It’s difficult because the manager has to let go of his power (hence the necessity to make the shift of power right at the beginning) and other people has to take their own power - it’s in their power, no need to refer to the manager. This does not exclude that they can ask for help but in the end, they make their own decision if it’s within their role. The external Facilitator will help the former leader to let go of his power and will help the people that were used to referring to a manager take their power, hence the necessity to have an external facilitator in the beginning.

What are the limits of Holacracy ?

What are the limits of Holacracy ?

So far we did not find any. Holacracy is not a system invented mentally, it came from practice. For that matter, it continues to evolve from experiences in the field. The rules of the game are gathered in a constitution, available as an open source.

iGi Partners has practiced Holacracy since June 2010 and pushes the system to its limits. We maintain a good relationship with HolacracyOne, the company that originated Holacracy and contribute a lot to the evolution of this system.

Holacracy® will enable you to :

Make your organization agile

Improve the performance of your organization in order to adapt rapidly to the evolution of the environment.

Conduct meetings faster and more efficiently

Different meeting processes for Operations and Governance enable the ability to stay focused on the work. The outcome is a fast treatment of topics without waste of time.

Get a clear delegation system

Set up a dynamic system of post description that clarifies roles and expectations for each individual that can be consulted through an ever-evolving software : GlassFrog.

Focus on the mission

Align the mission, strategy and the goal results in order to improve the company’s performance at the levels of sales, profitability and quality and avoid the Joule Effect.